Breach
by citygirl129
Summary: When Voyager is caught in a nebula and the crew rendered unconscious, it is up to one crewmember to save the ship.


**A/N:** I wrote this in 8th grade for a literature assignment. So don't be surprised if it's lame or anything. Leslie Carson is a character I made up, I sort of integrated her into the Voyager storyline and made her interact with the canon characters. Any mistakes are mine.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything, except for claiming Leslie Carson is my character. Star Trek: Voyager is the property of Paramount.

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"B'Elanna, we have a problem. I sent Vorik to check the plasma manifolds, but he said you sent Nicoletti to do it already."

Lieutenant Torres frowned. "Yes, almost an hour ago. Why?"

"The computer said they hadn't been realigned. But Vorik and Nicoletti told me otherwise," Leslie responded.

Torres tapped her comm. badge. "Computer, when was the last time the plasma manifolds were realigned?"

"On stardate 40379.2, 13:40 hours."

B'Elanna turned to Leslie. "That was almost two months ago, at the last rotine diagnostic we ran of all ship's systems. Something must be malfunctioning. Carson, get down there and—"

"All senior officers, report to the bridge," came Captain Janeway's voice over the comm. system.

As she hurried out of Engineering, the half-human, half-Klingon chief engineer said, "Get down there and see what's wrong. It's either the manifolds or the computer."

Ensign Carson nodded and left in search of a tool kit. She crawled into a Jeffries Tube and pulled one out of the bulkhead in an intersection.

When she got to the plasma manifold relays, Leslie pulled out a tricorder and began scanning. Suddenly, the ship jolted violently. The lights in the Jeffries Tubes dimmed, and a flashing red light replaced the standard lighting. The red alert klaxon wailed and echoed in the long, narrow tubes.

Leslie tapped her comm. badge. "Carson to Engineering. Vorik, what's going on?"

No response. "Engineering, respond! Carson to Bridge." Still nothing. "This is Ensign Carson to anyone who can hear me. Please respond!"

There was no reply. "Computer, what is the status of the crew?"

The computer emitted a buzzing sound. "Unable to respond. Insufficient data."

"Insufficient data?! What do you mean?"

"Please restate the question."

Out of frustration, Leslie hit her head on the bulkhead. "Ow," she mumbled. All of a sudden, she got a brainstorm. "Carson to Sickbay—"

"Ensign Carson! Good, you're still conscious. I was afraid everyone had been knocked out," the voice of the Emergency Medical Holographic program responded.

"Knocked out? What do you mean? What happened to the crew?"

"_Voyager_ has been flooded with some kind of knock-out gas, and—"

"Uh, sorry, but can you start from the beginning, Doc? I'm afraid I'm not totally clued in yet."

"Well, Ensign, I had been monitoring the conversation on the Bridge from here, and—"

"Look, Doctor, I'm sure this is all _very_ fascinating, but I'd like to stick to the facts just now," Leslie interrupted.

Even though it was over the comm. link, Leslie could tell the Doctor was insulted. "Very well. _Voyager_ entered an un-classified nebula about five minutes before the red alert sounded—"

"When senior officers were called to the bridge," Leslie put in.

"Yes," the EMH said impatiently. "The ship was hit by an electromagnetic charge from the nebula. There was a hull breach on deck 13, and some o the gas from the nebula leaked in through the breach on deck 2. I was able to erect a forcefield around Sickbay, but I don't know how you were protected, Ensign."

Leslie picked up her tricorder again. "I'm just a few meters away from the plasma manifolds. My tricorder says they're generating some sort of energy field. IT must be protecting me from the gas."

"Can you make it to—oh, dear."

"What is it? What's wrong?" Leslie demanded.

"I've just picked up several alien life-forms on Deck 2. They must have come in through the breach somehow. It looks as though they're making their way to the bridge. How anyone can breathe in that gas is beyond me…. Just a minute…. There. I've locked out all access points to the Bridge. They'll still be able to get in, but at least it will save us some time. Now, Ensign, can you get to Sickbay from where you are?"

"Yes. I'll have to backtrack to Engineering, though, to stock up. I think there should be a gas mask and a filer in the last intersection I went through. Don't go anywhere, Doc. Carson out."

Back in the Jeffries Tube junction, Leslie could tell the energy field was starting to fade. She was barely able to keep from passing out before adjusting the as mask on her face. Then she hurried back to Engineering and grabbed a phaser and compression rifle out of a weapons storage container. Not wanting to attract attention to herself by taking a turbolift to Deck 5, Ensign Carson opted to climb the six decks between Engineering and Sickbay.

A few meters outside of the sickbay, Leslie ran into a forcefield. "Carson to the Doctor. Can you lower this forcefield so I can get through?"

"You're going to have to move fast, Ensign. I can't take the risk that the aliens will detect the forcefield going down. I'll lower the field, then you'll have to dive through the intersection. I'm depending on you to give me the signal so I know when you're through. If the intruders aren't paying any attention, they shouldn't notice anything. But if they do, it'll show up as a minor fluctuation in the environmental system's filters."

"Nice way to cover your tracks, Doc." Leslie took a deep breath. "All right. Let's do it."

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Leslie didn't remember much when she neared consciousness. All she felt was a splitting headache and a searing pain in her right shoulder. Looking down on her was the face of the EMH.

"Rise and shine, Ensign."

She shot up, instantly regretting the move. "What time is it?!"

"Fourteen hundred hours. Only fifteen minutes since you passed out in the Jeffries Tube, don't worry. You were exposed to some of the gas and you managed to dislocate your shoulder as well. I was able to fix it, but it may hurt for a considerable amount of time. Now, if you are feeling well enough, I suggest we begin formulating a plan for retaking the ship."

She jumped off the bio bed without comment and followed the Doctor to the monitor. "While you were unconscious, I tracked the aliens' movements. Much to my surprise, they did not attempt to break into the bridge. When they realized all access points were blocked, they made their way to Engineering. I was unable to prevent them from entering. Much of the computer circuitry has been oddly affected by the nebula gas."

Leslie distractedly rubbed her shoulder. "Glad I didn't take that route."

The Doctor ignored her. "From what I have been able to gather from the functioning internal sensors, something in the aliens' biochemistry allows them to breathe in this nebula. Their physiology is amazing! I have detected no ships in the immediate area, so they must live _in _the nebula—"

"Uh, Doc? Sorry to interrupt, but isn't our plan to retake the ship so we _don't_ have a chance to learn about these aliens? From what _I've_ been able to gather from my functioning brain cells, I'd say they're hostile and not interested in diplomacy. After all, they attacked the ship, caused a hull breach, and filled the ship with some sort of knock-out gas. Not the kind of people I'd like to meet in a dark alley."

His face remained emotionless, although edged with irritation, Leslie could tell. "If I can get to environmental controls, I could get it up and running so that it filters oxygen back into the atmosphere. With any luck, the aliens won't be able to breathe oxygen. Let's hope that's the reason they flooded _Voyager_ with gas in the first place."

"How will you survive?" the Doctor asked. "The gas masks are only meant for a limited time of use."

Leslie arched an eyebrow. "You haven't figured out a way to protect me from the nebula gas yet?"

"I did develop a sort of antigen to purge the gas from your body before waking you. Perhaps that could be modified to keep the nitric acid completely out of your lungs…" The Doctor moved to the medical examination console on the other side of his office. He tapped several controls and picked up a hypospray. Inserting a tube into the hypo, the Doctor then moved back to Leslie.

"I've never made anything to completely block something from the lungs. I'm not sure how well it will work. You should take this," he handed her another hypospray, "in case you start feeling the effects of the gas again. It's only a temporary solution, though, Ensign. I would advice against taking any detours or making excess trips."

Leslie tossed the hypo up and caught it in her hand. She indicated for the Doctor to inject her with the antigen by tilting her head to the side. The holographic doctor gave her more instructions as she re-holstered her phaser and compression rifle.

"We should keep an open comm. Link. You can alert me to where the aliens are, because my tricorder might be affected by the nebula atmosphere." Leslie tossed a gas mask and a tricorder in her pack along with the hypospray, adjusted the straps and secured it with a buckle around her waist.

Environmental control was seven decks down, but it was avoiding the alien security teams that was the problem. Leslie was walking down the corridor, her phaser rifle emitting a soft glow of light to illuminate the way. She didn't realize they were coming around the corner until they were almost on top of her. She pressed against the bulkhead, wishing she had a personal cloaking device. But the alines turned the opposite direction. She could hear the clicking dialect as they chattered back and forth.

"Doctor, I almost had a run-in with our new pals here. Check and see if the sensors show any signs of an intruder. Maybe they pretended not to notice me. I wouldn't put it past them."

"Negative, Ensign. The sensors show no signs of intruders. Are you almost to environmental control?"

"I'm about three decks above it. I had to take several detours, and I may have to take more." Sensing a protest coming from the doctor, she continued hurriedly, "I know what you said about the antidote, but unless you plan on defeating these aliens by yourself when I get captured, then I can't avoid taking the scenic route."

"Very well. Let me know if you start feeling dizzy and/or sleepy. Those seem to be the most common symptoms of losing consciousness from the gas."

Leslie backed down the corridor to a turbolift, keeping a wary eye on the main hallway. She had taken the Jeffries Tubes when climbing between decks, but now assumed the turbolift would be safe for a three-deck trip.

She assumed wrong.

The cylinder-shaped lift jerked to a stop between decks ten and eleven. "Oh, great!" Leslie muttered. Suddenly suspcisious, she crouched down to the floor and tapped her comm. Badge. "Doctor," she whispered urgently, "I'm stuck in turbolift two. I think the aliens detected me Can you create some kind of…diversion to get me out?"

For the third time that day, Leslie heard nothing but silence over the comm. channel. "Doctor? Doc, are you there?"

A loud, obnoxious clicking sound responded to Leslie's plea. She pressed her hands to her ears to drown it out. Finally it stopped. Leslie did the only thing she could do to keep from being tracked. She tore off her comm. badge and threw it on the floor. The aliens had found the Doctor's program was still running. _This is the last thing I need happening!_

With the end of her compression rifle, she popped the hatch on the top of the turbolift open. Just as she was climbing out, her backpack caught on the edge of the escape hatch. Leslie struggled to pull it free, and unknowingly dropped the hypospray onto the floor of the lift next to her comm. badge.

She managed to climb out of the turbolift and into the turbo-shaft. The only way out was a ladder down to deck twelve, and she finally made it. Pounding down the corridor to environmental controls, not caring if she was being chased, Leslie had only one thing on her mind. The crew had been incapacitated. The EMH had been deactivated. Most of the ships' systems were offline. She was the only one who could save the ship and crew. And she only had a few precious moments left.

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She jammed the door to environmental control. Just as she was beginning to reroute power to the environmental systems, Leslie suddenly dropped to her knees, her head reeling. She was becoming disoriented, a sign that the gas was taking effect. Her vision was blurring as she riffled through the pack frantically searching for the hypo. It wasn't there. She pulled herself to her fee and tried to focus on feeding oxygen throughout the ship. _Must not…lose…consciousness…_

Leslie almost collapsed. She clutched the control panel and tapped more buttons. Finally, the gas filled her lungs and she dropped to the floor.

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Vague sounds swam around Leslie's brain. "How is she, Doctor?" "Fine, Captain. I was able to flush the gas from her lungs, and she's just resting now." "Can you wake her?" "Yes."

There was the cool hiss of a hypospray against her neck, even though she was already half-awake. Blue, red, and black blurred together in her vision; she blinked to clear the image. Leslie tried to struggle off the biobed, but the Doctor firmly pushed her down. She settled for leaning back on her hands.

"How are you feeling, Ensign?" Captain Janeway asked gently.

Leslie rubbed her eyes. "Still groggy, but for the most part, fine. How long was I asleep?"

"Almost thirty-six hours," the Doctor replied. "It was a few hours before Lt. Torres was able to bring my program back online, and by then your body had almost been filled with the gas from the nebula."

"You saved us, Leslie. If you hadn't gotten to environmental control by the time you did, any hope of any of us coming to would have been gone. We would have been put off the ship at the nearest planet, and _Voyager_ would have been in the aliens' hands," the captain told her.

All this floated around in her head, and she was barely able to grasp anything. "I—the aliens…what—"

Janeway placed a hand on her shoulder. "Harry was able to modify the universal translators, and we got a…basic understanding of the aliens' plan. We were able to reconcile our differences, and we exchanged information about this part of space. And nobody got killed."

Leslie managed a smile. She rubbed her forehead. Before she could speak, the captain nodded at the doctor, who announced, "Tomorrow you can return to duty, Ensign. Just one more day of rest should be fine."

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The next day, Leslie was eating breakfast in the mess hall with Tom Paris and Harry Kim. Neelix, the Talaxian cook, set the lid on a pot in his kitchen and came out to chat.

"How's the food?" he asked.

"Oh, it was really good, Neelix. What is it?" Tom asked around a mouthful of the breakfast special.

"Well," the cook replied enthusiastically, "It's _xilkt_ casserole, a delicacy on the Talaxian homeworld. The meat comes from the hide of a _shu-shu_ beast. The noodles are made from the root of the _enut_ plant, which grows only once a year in the southern hemisphere of Talax. I also collected a sample of the nebula gas and used it to cook the food. It makes a wonderful fuel component! The casserole is quite delicious, isn't it?"

Leslie suddenly felt a little queasy and set her fork down on her tray, but snickered as she saw Tom literally turn green. "Lost your appetite, Paris?" she teased.

"Maybe I'll stick to using my replicator rations for a while," the pilot muttered.

Along with Harry and Neelix, Leslie let out a genuine laugh.


End file.
